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Overcrowding, safety a dire concern at Duplin County Detention Center
By Ena Sellers, Duplin Journal
KENANSVILLE — The need for a new detention center to replace the deteriorating and severely overcrowded Duplin County Jail is a dire concern for Sheriff Stratton Stokes. The sentiment is shared not only among staff and local law enforcement but also by other community members who are worried for the safety of the workers and inmates. On Dec. 15, the Duplin Journal visited the facility.
The pace was busy as guards moved in and out through the narrow hallways of the blue-wall interior. The sound of metal gates echoed throughout the tight space as a guard brought a male to a holding cell about the size of a bathroom. The cell was already occupied by three other inmates who had been sleeping there due to overcrowding. People sleeping on the floor throughout the jail’s different areas was a common sight.
Right now, the jail is housing 22 inmates in other counties, and they are still over the 96-limit with 110 inmates at the facility. According to Sheriff Stokes, between 15 and 30 inmates are housed off-site at any given time, with most being males, costing taxpayers $60 per day per person. The cost goes up to $100 a day if a female inmate needs housing. Last month, the Sheriff’s Office had to request an additional $300,000 from the county, as they had exhausted the budgeted $200,000 within the first six months of the fiscal year.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Inside the jail, the employees responsible for caring for the inmates face many challenges trying to keep things running and juggling accommodations for a flow of inmates that does not slow down, whether there is space or not.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, from Jan. 1 through Dec. 15 of last year, 1,839 persons were brought to the jail, serving a cumulative time of 42,930 days as they waited for their sentence.
For First Sergeant Erica Williams, who has been with Duplin County law enforcement for 10 years, making the move from working courts to the jail gave her a new perspective of what it is like working inside the facility.
“Coming from the courts, you come over here, you drop them off — you leave. (Jailers) are having to deal with (inmates) all day long and all night and that really opened my eyes to how dangerous it is. You pop that door, and anything can happen. They’d be sweet one minute, and the next minute, they can rush that door,” said Williams.
Lt. Denise Mitchell, who has been with the Sheriff’s Office Detention Center Division for the last 25 years, told the Duplin Journal that the jail gets so overcrowded it is unsafe for the employees.
“Every day, you’re taking a chance when you come in these doors,” said Mitchell. “You get all kinds of attitudes from back there and sometimes up here. It’s like you are fighting a no-winning battle in a sense because, you know, the courts bring them, probation brings them, deputies bring them, troopers bring them, and you have no room to put these people … and then you’ve got to send your workers back there to deal with them. They’re everywhere… they are laid out everywhere, and you’ve got nowhere to put them, and then you call other counties to try to get them moved, and they are fighting the same thing we are fighting, so sometimes they can’t even take them, and so, here we is — back again,” Mitchell said.
As we moved through the facility, the restless cries of a woman afflicted with mental health reverberated through the walls. She has been arrested and committed to the hospital multiple times.
Housed in a segregation cell on the male side of the facility, this woman is waiting to be evaluated at Cherry Hospital before her case can proceed in the court system. Due to backlogs at the psychiatric hospital, the woman could be looking at a year-long wait.
The jail has no single cells for females, making it a challenge when there is a need to keep them separate. While every attempt is made to house overflowing inmates in other jails, when it comes to those who are violent, suffering from mental health, or having medical issues, it is challenging to find placement due to the liability associated with it. Sheriff Stokes explained that depending on the inmate’s charges, “if their bond is too high — (other jails) won’t take them.”
The need is so dire at times that personnel resort to using meeting, visitation, and fingerprinting areas to hold inmates. While these small rooms can help in a pinch, officers on shift must regularly take those inmates out to provide access to a restroom.
The chronic overcrowding situation bleeds into other areas of dysfunction, like people getting unsecured bonds or criminal summons instead of warrants, as stated by the sheriff at the July 17, 2023, county commissioners meeting.
According to the Sheriff, they currently have one transport officer who averages 2,000 miles a week. The officer transports prisoners daily due to writs, involuntary commitments, and housing inmates out of the county. “He alone cannot handle all the transports, so we utilize other divisions to assist,” said Sheriff Stokes.
The jail staff is tired and overworked, pulling 12-hour shifts a day, many times going without a day off due to staffing shortages. That means that for the next 12 hours, two or three jailers must make rounds, feed 110 inmates, do meds, take sick calls, and do court. “It can get really crazy… admin courts calling constantly,” said Williams.
“It gets frustrating, you know, you are overworked, and then you got to come in and deal with overcrowding, and people with attitudes… Some people have worked all week,” said Mitchell, explaining that sometimes they go without a day off because they are understaffed. “We work on shift too, to fill in; that takes away from stuff that we need to do, but I’m not going to leave my people hanging.”
However, law enforcement is not the only one concerned about overcrowding and safety at the Duplin County Jail; Raymond Campbell, a Duplin County Crime Stoppers Board member, is among other concerned citizens hoping something gets done to prevent a potential tragedy.
“If something happens in that 40-men cell — and they will call other people in if it is bad enough,” said Campbell. “But you know how quick somebody can get hurt? Not just the inmate, an officer, or anybody — Quick.”
Bill Wolak, a Beulaville attorney and member of the DCCC board, is another resident with concerns about the jail.
“The biggest problem is going to be if the Department of Justice steps in; I am talking about the United States Department of Justice, their civil rights division. If they step in, they will mandate that the county build a jail, period. They’ll get a federal court order, and that’s the end of the conversation for the commissioners,” said Wolak. “…and at that point, there’s no more local discussion as to where you are going to get the money — you are going to get the money, or they are going to fine the county X number of dollars per day for every day that they don’t start. That is looming…”
For the past 27 years, local law enforcement, state representatives, and members of local government have advocated for a new jail to replace the current facility, which was built in 1978 and retrofitted in 1996. Jail studies were conducted in 2005, 2008, and 2019 to mitigate a situation that continues to pose a problem.
From structural to maintenance issues, the list of repairs needed continues to grow, now with an analog camera system experiencing problems. Due to ongoing repairs, exposed plumbing can be seen with missing panels off the walls on the older side of the jail.
The prisoners’ only connection to the outside world is an app like FaceTime, which has been used for visitation since the pandemic. Due to overcrowding, the jail does not offer in-person visitation, with very few exceptions.
Tall brick walls in a patio roughly the length of a school bus provide inmates the rare opportunity to get sunlight if the weather allows.
Aside from escorted visits to the courthouse or the doctor, inmates remain in their cells, day in and day out. While each is assigned a tablet with books, movies, and access to educational programs, “if you are there 24-hours a day, seven days a week, you’ll get bored,” Mitchell explained.
Safety has been a big concern due to overcrowding, now with inmates tearing stuff apart and making shanks out of any metal they manage to find in their environment. In 2023, the staff confiscated more than 15 shanks. They also had to stop a work crew that used to help at the landfill.
“I went ahead and stopped that altogether because I think they were bringing stuff in,” said Sheriff Stokes, adding that he had the staff fitted for stab-proof vests last month. “We’re trying to do everything we can to make sure everybody’s protected.”
Mitchell shared that she wishes the County Commissioners would visit the jail.
“In the past, we have invited the commissioners to come over here and just see what we do. I mean, spend a day with us to see what we go through,” said Mitchell, adding that a couple have visited in the past, but she would like to see all of them visit as a group. “If they would come over and see what goes on day to day, they would not believe it. They just would not believe it.”
Sheriff Stokes expressed that a three-pod facility with a capacity of 236 beds would provide sufficient beds to house males and females in separate wings as required by law and provide the safety and functionality needed to operate.
According to the sheriff’s presentation at the July 2023 commissioners meeting, a two-pod facility with 156 beds would not resolve the overcrowding problem; with 78 beds allocated for males and 78 for females, the male wing would be overcrowded from the start.
As we concluded the Duplin Journal’s visit to the jail, we asked Mitchell for a few closing words — something she would like to say.
“For the safety of the people… we need another jail… I know it is not like a school and we don’t want them to have the Hilton…. “It is for the workers’ safety (and) the public’s safety… You don’t have room to put these people.”
The bid deadline for the construction of a two-pod jail with an option to a third pod is Jan. 16. According to County Manager Bryan Miller, at that point the County Commissioners will have the cost estimates needed to decide how they wish to move forward.
